The plan for the day was to head to Kylemore Abbey, which is the biggest visitor attraction in the area but it did look beautiful. We were not disappointed, the view of the castle across the water on arrival was stunning.
It was still quite quiet when we arrived. Fidget and Squidge were charming the people in the ticket office and we had a brief chat. We said we were from Bristol and they started talking about rioting in Bristol, which we had heard nothing about so it shook me up for quite a while.
We took a shuttle bus along to the walled gardens. Waiting for the bus…
giddy-up!
The entrance to the walled garden was magical, Fidget ran up and looked through the door, it put me in mind of Alice in Wonderland, where Alice looks through the little door into the gardens beyond. The view through the door of the formal garden was just lovely.
We had a roam around, including the head gardener’s house and the Bothey (where the under-gardeners lived), Fidget was fascinated by the Bothey and kept calling it the robber’s house.
We had some lunch at the tearooms. Fidget wanted to go back to the robber’s house, so set off with Squidge and Daddy and I found a sunny spot to do a bit of drawing.
We took the shuttle bus back across to the castle and then walked round to the Church to hear a harpist perform.
Fidget was wrapt and didn’t want to leave. She said the music sounded like a lullaby. The harpist came over on a break and said what a lovely good girl she was.
We wandered along to the Mausoleum, then back to the cafe for tea and ice cream before leaving for home.
It was a really super day, I loved the gardens and could have spent the whole day wandering around them and drawing. The harpist was certainly a highlight for M and Fidget. I think Squidge might say “ice cream”.
Wednesday 10th August
Last night we had heard the rain arrive, but with the weather being so changeable it gave no great idea of what the following day would hold. But this morning the rain was heavy and the wind howled around the cottage and you could no longer see the twelve Bens mountains at the end of the lake the rain was so thick in the air.
While M had a lie-in, me and the girls did some sticker books…
We made our plans and set off, getting pretty wet just getting in the car. We drove until Squidge fell asleep and then stopped by the side of the fjord at Killary - where the cruises leave from. M and I had some coffee from the flask and Fidget enjoyed a banana. We saw a number of coaches arrive to get on the cruise boat, but while the water in the fjord was very calm, the visibility with the pouring rain would have been little beyond the edges of the boat, so it didn’t look like fun.
We drove on to Leenane and parked up as Squidge was still asleep.
When she woke up the rain was tipping down, so we prepared ourselves best we could in the car and then made the short dash to the Sheep & Wool Centre across the road.
We were soaked.
We killed some time looking around the usual “craft shop” stuff, some nice woolly jumpers and blankets and then rows of tat covered in leprechauns, shamrocks and blarney.
At 12 we were let in to the museum to see some live sheep shearing. The sheep in question was thrashing around abit and Squidge was right at the front on my shoulders. She was not happy. Most of the rest of the crowd in our 12’o’clock group were French and were all looking at Squidge and coo-ing and tutting in a very sweet way, ignoring the poor old sheep. So I squeezed out to the back. At the end of the demonstration the shearer was pretending the fleece was a beard and then cut bits off to give to the children to take away and duly Fidget got a mucky bit of sheep coat. While it is indeed an authentic souvenir that we now have sitting (smelling) in the boot, I might have preferred to take away a plastic leprechaun-riding-on-a-sheep key-ring or what-have-you.
There was then the rest of the museum with some very interesting displays on how the wool gets turned into yarn and tweed etc. There was a lady spinning using an old spinning wheel, which was really cool as she was very happy to chat away about it and Fidget has been listening to lots of Grimm’s fairy tales with spinners (Rumplestiltskin, the 3 spinners and so on) so she had quite a bit of context for wanting to find out more.
I found the weaving most fascinating as the same lady gave a demonstration on an old big loom.
We then scurried round the road to the Blackberry cafe, which had been recommended in the guide book and we were not disappointed. The food was super and it had a lovely cosy atmosphere on such a damp drear day. M had a traditional Irish stew, I had crab cakes and the girls shared a very tasty beef burger and bits of ours.
This was followed by ice creams, cheese-cake and hot chocolates. Yum!
We drove round to look at Aasleagh Waterfall. Very wet, very, very wet.
We then drove round to Glassillaun beach which is recommended as one of the best beaches on the west coast and certainly in Galway. It was used in filming the Quiet Man apparently. (website link?)
Very, very wet – we stayed long enough for a few photos but then retreated.
We then drove home. This morning while M was filling up at a small roadside petrol station (the type too small to have a cover over where the pumps are), the man serving him when he paid said (after he had finished laughing at him over how wet and miserable it was) that tomorrow would be better. I responded that it did give a lot of scope for some still pretty cruddy weather as it would hard for it to be worse. Let’s see…
Thursday 11th August
Weather was definitely not as bad this morning, there was no strong wind so the rain was falling vertically in a gentle fashion. We set out for Cleggan just around the corner. It had been a slow start to the morning with getting some washing done and me having a long lie-in. M had done a fry-up so while it was near noon it wasn’t long since we had eaten. We drove out to the Rossadilisk beach and as the mist was very light got out for a walk.
It was a nice beach for running around, but Squidge decided to poke about in a big splodge of bird poo. I took her down to the shore to clean her hands, but hadn’t taken off my shoes, I have no idea what I was thinking, but with the first wave I had soaked feet and Squidge had soaked leggins. Just then the mist got considerably heavier so by the time we reached the car Squidge and myself were in need of a change of trousers and shoes.
We drove back to Cleggan and went to Oliver’s seafood bar and restaurant which again came highly recommended. It was very busy, but some people were just leaving so we got a great table looking out across the harbour. The girls went for an explore with Daddy while I did some drawing.
I had soup, M had seafood chowder and the girls shared a fish and chips that was so massive it would have fed all 4 of us.
Back at the car, Squidge fell asleep as soon as she was in her chair. So we set off to drive round the peninsula.
We stopped by a lovely bay near the Aughrushbeg Lough. There was a break in the weather so Fidget and Daddy went for an explore of the rock pools and I got to draw another picture.
We continued driving round stopping briefly at a place where at low tide you can drive across to an island.
Then came back to the cottage to eat up as much of our food as possible before leaving tomorrow.
This has been really nice week, M and I have been to this area several times but haven’t really appreciated what wonderful beaches there are here. I wish we could have spent the last couple of days doing more beachy stuff but we have still had a brilliant time.
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